


Pay Your Bills

by m4xw3ll



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Scott is a broke college student, demon!Bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-04 08:22:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18339830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m4xw3ll/pseuds/m4xw3ll
Summary: Scott is a tired and broke college student. The monster under his bed isn't too fond of the idea that he can't pay his bills, though, and decides to help him out. Naturally, Scott isn't really up to the idea he's been sharing his bedroom this whole time.





	Pay Your Bills

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: "You throw a bill across a room and it lands under your bed. A claw shoves it back out, along with a wad of cash."

Scott Lang was many things. Engineering student, resourceful, intelligent, a little desperate … but not rich. Which was a direct correlation to the desperate fact. Because how was he supposed to pay rent? It was already way past due every month and his landlord was nice enough to give him extension every time, but this time … if he couldn't pay he would be homeless in about two weeks. Scott reread the letter he just found in his mailbox as he made his way through the tiny apartment and into the bedroom. He tossed the backpack with all his uni stuff next to the desk and was this close to ripping this stupid fucking bill apart. Instead he also threw it across the room. It slid right under the bed.

"Damn," Scott sighed and frowned, contemplating all the disgusting things he might find if he were to fish this stupid piece of paper out from under there.

"Damn is right," a sudden and unfamiliar voice answered. "You owe them how much?"

Scott froze and his heart dropped into his boots. Okay, that was not how he had planned his evening to go. There didn't just come a voice from under his bed, right? That had to be his imagination. He was going nuts.

He backed away until he saw a … a metal hand? This strange metal hand with really long claws for fingers reaching out from under the bed, shoving the letter and what seemed to be a wad of cash over the floor. Scott grabbed the door frame, his knees were shaking and he couldn't believe his eyes. He should probably lay off the coffee, or at least stop mixing it with energy drinks all the time. Those were some crappy hallucinations!

"I need a therapist," he mumbled to himself – because there was nobody in his apartment. Nope.

"What you need is to pay your rent," the hand – or whatever it belonged to – said. "If you don't, we're both homeless."

"I'm this close to puking my goddamn guts out," Scott answered to the voice, "or having a heart attack, so if you want to keep your place, you better stop scaring the shit out of me!"

"Oh," the voice said and the hand disappeared. Unlike the bill and the cash on the floor. "Sorry."

"Thanks." He was insane. There was no doubt about it. Nothing else could explain what the fuck just happened.

"One more thing," the voice came back and that same metal hand shoved another piece of paper out from under the bed.

"And what's that supposed to be?" Scott snapped.

"Grocery list," the voice answered nonchalantly. "I'm sick of your mac'n'cheese."

Scott swallowed. Well, if he already was insane, he could play along. "What's wrong with mac'n'cheese? Get your ass out from under my bed!"

"Just a moment."

"What, you have to get dressed?"

"Yeah, my demon form scares most humans, I'm just looking for my human skin." What. The. Hell?

He's had enough of this day. First, his prof had assigned them an ungodly amount of homework, second it was raining cats and dogs outside and he still was dripping wet, third he really needed to pay rent or look for a cheaper place and now to top it all off, there was a freaking monster living under his bed? Things couldn't get worse.

At least until the bed shook and a … a what? Scott rubbed his eyes. There really was a man crawling out from under the bed, dark hair and leather jacket with one sleeve and metal arm – now with normal fingers, thank you very much – and black trousers and combat boots. Scott still grabbed the door frame as his legs gave out under him and he sunk to the floor, a small whimper escaping his lips.

The man grabbed the cash and sheets of paper laying at his feet and placed them neatly on Scott's desk. Or … no, that was a monster, right? He looked like a man, though? Well, except the scaled tail that swung back and forth and nearly kicked over the floor lamp. But the monster just went, "Oops, sorry," grabbed the lamp and placed it back on its exact place before turning to Scott. "So, as I was saying, you need to buy some vegetables. And fruit. I like plums, so definitely … why are you screaming?"

Scott couldn't help it. All the fear and panic that had bundled up inside him from the moment he threw away his rent bill just came out and he was pretty sure when he was finished, he would be hoarse.

"Could you, uh, maybe stop?" The monster looked rather helpless as he bent down over Scott, which just made him scream louder. It backed off immediately, holding up his hands. "Look, I'm not gonna kill you or anything, but I think you might scare the neighbors."

That got Scott to shut up in an instant. He couldn't let anyone see what he saw. Most people wouldn't be mentally strong enough to take it. Scott doubted that he was. He took a few deep breaths, not for a second looking away from this freaking monster that had crawled out from under his bed. "So," he finally managed to get out, "plums, yeah?"

"Oh, yes." The monster sat down onto the bed and looked around. "And I think I also ate your last candy bar, so you might want to stock up on those, too."

Something in Scott's mind clicked and a few things suddenly made sense. He still had no intention of getting up and going anywhere near this creature that made it clear it was just wearing a skin suit, but his eyes narrowed. "Wait a second. Last week I bought shrimps ramen. I never saw them again."

"Not too bad," the monster nodded.

"And I'm pretty sure I had some chili leftover that Miss Rutherford from next door brought me. Disappeared overnight."

"Tell her a few more kidney beans wouldn't have hurt."

"You're eating my stuff," Scott deduced, voice still closer to a high-pitched scream than he would like.

That monster who apparently had a thing for human food just shrugged. "What else am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know," Scott imitated the shrug, "hunt down mortals and feed on their souls?"

"Oh please." The monster looked at him in disgust. "Who do you think I am?"

"I don't know," Scott repeated, getting angrier by the minute the more he became aware of his situation. "Apparently the monster under my bed! The monster who cleans out the fridge! The monster that doesn't help with the shitton of homework I have! The monster that just gave me rent money and a fucking grocery list! The monster who –"

"Bucky," it interrupted him. "My name is Bucky and I'm not a monster. I'm a demon, there's a difference."

"Okay," was all Scott managed, because the way this mo– no, demon glared at him, it probably wasn't a good idea to get on his nasty side. "Okay. I get it. It's fine. Sorry, uh … Bucky."

Bucky just made a gesture with his hand that indicated either a) Scott's interior design sucked, or b) he shouldn't stress over it. He laid down onto the bed and sprawled all over it, his tail flapping from one side to the other and messing up Scott's sheets. "We're not supposed to show ourselves to humans, you know. Just scare you once in a while."

Well, that was reassuring. Sort of. Scott still didn't know what he should make of this. Apparently, he had a demon roommate and it wasn't freaking him out as much as ten minutes ago. He had no idea if that was a good or a bad thing. "Then why did you?"

"Pity?" Bucky suggested. He stared at the ceiling. "I need a place to sleep, too, you know."

Scott managed to scramble back to his feet. His eyes darted over to the desk and then back to Bucky. "I don't want to know where you got the money, right?"

That little smirk told him all he had to know. "Probably not."

"Okay." Scott took another deep breath. "You know what? I'm not questioning it. Not why you're here, what you're doing in your free time or how often you must have heard me beat my meat. I don't want to know, honestly. Just … don't freak me out again, please?"

Was that a chuckle coming from the demon? Nope, Scott reminded himself, not questioning anything. He really loved that little bit of mental health he still had left.

"I'll try," Bucky promised.

"Then we're off to a good start. Well, as good as can be with you being a demon and all." Scott grabbed the money and counted it. "I'm gonna go shopping and pay rent. Don't flicker the lights or scare the neighbors, or else I'm putting you into a circle of salt! I've watched enough Supernatural to know that this will keep you on a leash!"

Bucky just stared at him as if he was contemplating if killing him wouldn't be easier. Then he turned his head to stare at the ceiling again. "Hurry up, I'm starving. And take an umbrella!"


End file.
